The Meat Market: Ten Stories and a Novella

by Mashiul Alam, Shabnam Nadiya (Translator )

When Julekha’s breasts dry up, her baby finds sustenance in a way that astonishes the villagers of Modhupur. All lines of communication are cut off in Roop Nagar after a monstrous crime rocks all its residents to sleep. Aminul Islam sets out to buy goat for the Eid feast but gets into an ugly altercation at the butcher shop. On the issue of grazing rights on the parliament building lawns, Mofiz and Jamila, who is named after the wife who left him, stirs up a constitutional crisis.

Leading Bengali writer Mashiul Alam’s hyperreal stories hold up a mirror to Bangladeshi society. The reader, in turn, is a spectator witnessing heightened versions of macabre events that are somehow within the realm of possibility. Some of these stories disrupt social complacency, while others are immensely tender—and all of them are intensely political. Rendered in clear, precise prose, and translated masterfully by Shabnam Nadiya, The Meat Market is a dazzling collection that marks the arrival of a world-class writer on the English literary scene.

260 pages, Paperback

Published April 15, 2024

About the author

Mashiul Alam was born in northern Bangladesh in 1966. He graduated in journalism from the Peoples’ Friendship University of Russia in Moscow in 1993. He works at Prothom Alo, the leading Bengali daily in Bangladesh. He is the author of a dozen books including Second Night with Tanushree (a novel), Ghora Masud (a novella), Mangsher Karbar (The Meat Market, short stories), and Pakistan (short stories).

Reviews

[Sayari Debnath · Rating 5 out of 5]

An astonishing book. Can't recommend enough.

[Lukas Van Veen · Rating 3 out of 5]

It does not reinforce hope for the human race....

[Anupama · Rating 4 out of 5]

Found a Murakami counterpart . The stories are not meant to please you . It will leave you shocked yet you want more …

[Ayush Ranka · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant!!